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Mushfest of a marriage works for Bode and Morgan Miller

In the midst of the Winter OIympics, the Summer Games broke out as Bode Miller and his wife Morgan passed, set and spiked a volleyball on a warm afternoon. All that was missing was a beach and a bikini.

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia -- In the midst of the Winter OIympics, the Summer Games broke out as Bode Miller and his wife Morgan passed, set and spiked a volleyball on a warm afternoon. All that was missing was a beach and a bikini.

After training runs Thursday for Friday's super combined race, Miller played a game of pepper with the pro beach volleyball player who happens to be his wife. Morgan Miller had packed a deflated volleyball in her luggage just for the occasion.

"Her season's coming up so it's good to get some touches on the ball," Miller says about his wife. "The Olympics are a lot different from our normal schedule so we have a lot more down time in between races and stuff. Plus, playing volleyball is fun."

In a bit of serendipity, Morgan's season ends when Bode's begins and vice versa. Morgan hasn't solidified a partner for the coming season, but she knows what she's looking for: her perfect match.

"I need to find my Bode Miller, in a non-sexual way," she says with a long laugh. "That kind of partnership, that kind of friendship. Maybe we'll just put a wig on him and bring him out there."

Anyone who follows both athletes on social media knows their marriage is a mushfest, as they tweet about how lucky they are to have each other. Their courtship was a whirlwind affair.

Represented by the same agent, Bode met Morgan two years ago when she was playing in a tournament in Fort Lauderdale. He called and asked her out to dinner; she turned him down, several times. When he declared that they were soul mates, before they even knew each other, she simply thought he was nuts. Within a month and a half of meeting, Miller bought an engagement ring.

The first year of their marriage was filled with sadness and grief. She suffered a miscarriage. The next month a former girlfriend gave birth to a son fathered by Miller and a messy court battle for custody is still being waged. Then last April, Miller's younger brother, Chelone, 29, died in California, apparently of a seizure thought to be related to the traumatic brain injury he sustained in a motorcycle accident in 2005. Chelone Miller was hoping to make his first Olympics team in Sochi.

At the bottom of the downhill training run, Miller took out her phone and read a text message her mother had just sent. "This is our new favorite quote: 'The couples that are meant to be are the ones who go through everything that is meant to tear them apart and come out even stronger than they were before.' "

Throughout the World Cup season, Morgan has been at training runs and races. When her season starts, the roles will be reversed.

"As an athlete, I think it's super inspiring to watch your husband be a bad ass. Because when we met he wasn't really skiing (while recovering from knee surgery) so he was at every practice, super supportive," she says.

Switzerland players warm up outside by kicking a soccer ball before a women's preliminary round women's ice hockey game against United State during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
Winslow Townson, USA TODAY Sports

He started studying the sport, approaching it as he does his own races, looking to find a line down the hill that nobody else thought of, or a shot that's never been attempted.

"He was saying, 'This is how you need to beat this team,' and a lot of times he's been right," she says.

Morgan Miller is also learning what it's like to wait at the bottom of an Olympic hill after her husband falls well short of a race he was expected to win. After Bode finished eighth in the downhill Sunday, following consecutive days of spectacular training runs, NBC's cameras were firmly focused on Morgan. She didn't want to cry on TV so she pulled her hood over her head and face, as if to hide in plain sight.

"My heart is breaking. I want to cry," she says.

Afterwards, she was crushed much more than Bode.

"It's hard to take because she's in a helpless position," he says. "She takes the defeat just as hard."

Given Miller missed the previous season while recovering from knee surgery, and his advanced age of 36, Miller said he assumed most thought he was "washed up."

Miller, who has won a U.S.-record five Alpine Olympic medals, came on strong as the season progressed. After Friday's super combined, he will likely race in two more events, the super G and the giant slalom. .

If the previous three Winter Games were filled with drama and partying, these Games are anything but for Miller. So what do the wild and crazy Millers do in their free time? They lounge in their room and watch TV.

"That's the thing that a lot people don't understand that he's the most steady consistent person I have ever met," she says. "That's why our marriage works, it's predictable.

"'Predictable' is a very weird way to describe Bode because everything he does is unpredictable (in skiing). He's rock solid, in his emotions, his thought process, in everything he does."

WATCH: MILLER EYES MEDAL IN SUPER COMBINED

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USA TODAY Sports' David Leon Moore breaks down the race and the medal hopes of Americans Ted Ligety and Bode Miller.

If Miller reaches the top of the podium again – in 2010 he was the super combined Olympic champion – he would become the oldest Olympic champion in Alpine skiing.

"Obviously, expectations are high. But no matter what we still have each other," Morgan says. "We're still totally happy. He's still incredibly successful with what he does out here and he's true to who he is. And that is success in itself."

Medal or not, Miller will return home to Orange County, Calif, to the house he shares with his inlaws, hug his daughter and hopefully his son.

Then, he will return to the summer season of blocks, digs and kills, analyze every match, as if he's just another husband in the stands.